Taking refuge in the residence of the Mexican embassy will not prevent her from continuing to be processed. The Special Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court declared inadmissible the prosecutor’s request to declare Betssy Chávez a contumacious prisoner and resolved that the currently asylum seeker continue with her trial for the December 2022 coup d’état.
As explained in the resolution read by the debate secretary Norma Carbajal in the hearing of the oral trial that follows the former prime minister of former president Pedro Castillo for the crime of rebellion, declaring Chávez’s contumacy would suspend the trial against him, which is already in the stage of final arguments and in which the accused has participated in the majority of the more than seventy hearings.
The court recalled that Chávez herself communicated her decision to remain silent in the oral trial and that her absence does not constitute a reason to suspend the process or declare her contumacy since she has always been represented by her technical defense.
The court also declared inadmissible the resignation of Luis Roberto Barranzuela, the former minister’s lawyer, who at the beginning of the hearing this Tuesday resigned from his defense after learning that his client sought asylum in the Mexican embassy and after frustrated attempts to communicate with her since last week.
The resolution indicates that Barranzuela must continue individually or collectively with his colleagues until the end of the trial, since they have carried out an uninterrupted defense throughout the process, specifying that if they do not comply with the technical defense of the accused, a public lawyer will be appointed and the disciplinary sanctions that may be applicable will be issued.
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